The International Education Institute is pleased to present this free
Customizable Early Reading Curriculum. Our curriculum can be viewed here at our
http://ReadToSucceed.com/free website
as PDF files, or, better yet, can
be downloaded as a series of PowerPoint files and then customized according to
your needs.

If you prefer the customizable version, each PowerPoint file will take 1-6 minutes to download, depending on your computer
and Internet connection, so be patient. They're worth it. If you do not have the full PowerPoint program to
access and customize our curriculum, you at least need to download a free
copy of the PowerPoint Viewer from the Microsoft website. To view our curriculum
online or to print it out, you can download the free PowerPoint viewer currently at:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=428d5727-43ab-4f24-90b7-a94784af71a4&DisplayLang=en.
This URL address may change from time to time, but if you go tohttp://www.microsoft.com
and look for
DOWNLOADS, you should be able to find the PowerPoint viewer for free
installation.

HOW TO USE OUR FREE CURRICULUM

If you have the capability to customize our PowerPoint-based curriculum, we particularly recommend you change many or all of the photos with photos of
your own young students and their own environment. This is a simple process in
PowerPoint but beyond the scope of this introduction. If you do not have
experience with PowerPoint and/or with digital photos, you almost certainly know
someone who does. Ask around. Otherwise, you can go to our site at

The IEI Curriculum can be used with students of all ages. The
portion available at this time is
NOT a phonics curriculum, but it can be used in conjunction with other
curricula, and we will be adding phonics-based curriculum over the coming few
weeks. Ultimately, we all learn to read most words by sight rather than by
phonic decoding anyway. So, the bigger our sight reading vocabulary, the better. Young
children can learn to read through word recognition long before they can
comprehend phonics. Indeed, this curriculum can be used even before children can
speak. We began using word strips with our oldest daughter when she was 3. The
most popular word strips were those that had to do with her own body: head, arm,
hand, elbow, knee, mouth, eyes, nose, etc. While we were using the word strips
to play the "Word Game," our younger 1-year-old daughter was able to
touch the parts of her body represented by each word -- even though she could
not say the words yet. The older daughter was later salutatorian of her large high
school class; the younger daughter was valedictorian.

Glen Doman has demonstrated for over 30 years that babies can learn how to
read easily and naturally in this fashion. Eventually children should learn to
read phonetically, and we recommend the Frontline Reading Curriculum for
children 4 years of age or older. But by learning some whole words from an early
age, children comprehend what reading is all about and are ready to learn any
new "tricks," such as phonics, to help them decode more and more words later on.
Thus, the word recognition approach while children are young will prepare
students to learn phonics later.

With this free IEI curriculum, children can learn more than 200 words in 2 years – even
if starting at age 1. But you should take it slowly and make it fun. Some
educators are vigorously opposed to teaching young children how to read, but
tens of thousands of teachers and parents have used Doman-associated techniques
"gently" to teach children to read without negative ramifications. The question
really isn’t "whether" young children can learn to read – and to enjoy reading –
at an early age. The question is HOW to do so. Children can learn to read as
naturally as they learn to speak – and in very similar fashion – by making
printed words as much a part of their environment as spoken words. The keys for young
children learning to read early and well – and not rebelling against it --
include:

Making it fun.

Making it short.

Making it part of the daily routine and individual expectations.

Making it part of a child’s overall environment.

And making sure parents are involved in modeling and providing positive
feedback.

ELEMENTS OF THE CURRICULUM

The IEI Customizable Curriculum includes word strips and illustrated "prebook"
pages that can be posted around the school or home -- whenever possible on the
actual objects they represent. Ideally, every word in the curriculum will be
visible somewhere in the children’s everyday world to help them memorize the
words over the period of about 2 years. Besides posting the word strips or
illustrated prebook pages, the word strips should be used in "playing" the "Word
Game." And, then, all the words are also used in our set of customizable books.

You can show the children the words in prebook form so they understand that
words make up books. But to start with, emphasize the word strips and the "Word
Game" until the children can recognize at least 10 key nouns from the first prebook. Once they have learned the vocabulary in the prebook,
they can move on to the first full book – I Like My Body -- Volume 1. This book emphasizes
nouns, along with very few other words. The advanced version of the book then
builds on the first one, incorporates most of the same nouns, but begins to add
verbs and additional pronouns, articles, etc.

The "Word Game" is simple. You start with just three word strips. First,
display each word strip -– printed with about 3-inch-high letters – and read each of
the words to the children. Then shuffle the words and hold up each again, asking
if anyone can guess the first word displayed. If teaching more than one child, make the children raise their hand
to be recognized so one young reader doesn’t dominate. If a child guesses wrong
– and they frequently will – don’t make a big deal about it. Just see if anyone
else knows the answer.

At first, play this short game 3-4 times a day, just 2-3 minutes at a time.
Within a few days, most of the children will be able to identify each of the
three words. Then start adding one word a day as long as the children can keep
up. Slow down if they cannot. How fast you can proceed will depend on the
children – their previous exposure to words, their age and maturity, etc. The
most important of these factors is their prior exposure to words. Children whose
parents read to them daily will progress faster, in general, than children
without such "lap time."

After the children have mastered the nouns used in Prebook 1, you can start
reading Book 1 with the children once or twice a day. Simultaneously begin
introducing into the Word Game other words used in the first book but not
included in the corresponding prebook. With Book 1, for example, you will need
to add "I," "like" and "my" to the Word Game.

The advanced version of I Like My Body uses mostly the same nouns but adds
associated verbs and several other commonly used words. Once the children master
the nouns, begin introducing the verbs into the Word Game. In reading the
advanced book, the children will quickly associate the verbs with their
corresponding nouns.
The Word Game will show whether children can actually distinguish between all
the words or whether they have simply memorized the book. You can also print out a version of the book without illustrations to
see how well the children know the words without visual cues. You can use the version without photographic illustration to have the children draw their
own illustrations.

Separate files contain the word
strips, the prebook, the regular and the advanced versions for each book.
Currently there are seven book sets completed, teaching hundreds of sight words. The illustrated prebook
in each set is to help the children learn the words faster
with visual cues. The word strips and/or pages from the prebooks can be posted
on the wall, on the corresponding objects in your home or classroom, and next to larger illustrations – perhaps
next to a blown up photo of one of your students, for example, in the case of I Like My
Body. A string could be stretched from each noun to the part of the body it
represents. You could post the verbs next to their associated noun.

A classroom teacher might change the student photo every week, putting up a
new "Student
of the Week" to illustrate the word strips. This would keep the children's
attention over a longer period of time. Technical or financial limitations may require you to print the
poster at 8˝x11 and then blow it up to 11x17 in black and white, but that is
very inexpensive. That is very inexpensive nowadays.

Since all the books and word strips are created in PowerPoint, you can easily
delete photos or replace our photos with your own. The books will be of much
more interest to your students if you customize them. Since I Like My Body ultimately introduces the words for over 20 body parts, and some can be
illustrated by more than one photo, every child in class could have his or her
photo in a customized book. Some of the photos may just be of a
student’s ear, hand or foot, but the children will know the difference. And they
will then be more motivated to learn how to read the book -- and to take it home
to read with their family.

The PowerPoint format is very flexible, allowing you to use it in any of
several ways. Copies of the books can be printed and stapled or bound for
children to use in the classroom or at home. The books can also be projected
onto a white board or screen to be read in a group. You can print every page
onto a transparency to be displayed with an overhead projector; you can use a
computer projector to display the books directly from your computer onto a light
surface; you can connect your computer to a large-screen TV; or, if your monitor
is large enough, you can display the books directly on your computer monitor as
you read the books with your students. It is extremely flexible.

The PDF format, on the other hand, is created with
Adobe Acrobat or other programs in conjunction with Acrobat. The PDF version of
the curriculum is easier and quicker to download but cannot be customized very
easily.